In many situations, the most visible factor is given all the attention. It’s difficult not to react immediately, but are you really dealing with the true root cause? Take a look at what you might be missing…..
It’s only through looking at data related to the causes that you can really find the real root cause. Without complete information and an understanding of the event, the root causes associated with the issue cannot be identified. The majority of time spent analyzing an event is spent in gathering data. The steps that remain are: 1) Data Collection (Measure) 2) Charting of the causal factors you have been measuring (Analysis) 3) Identifying the true root cause (Analysis) 4) Recommend and implement solutions (Implement) 5) Continue to monitor the effectiveness (is the problem resolved?) The answers to our questions come from immersing ourselves in evidence and pulling the causes from it, not focusing on the just what’s listed on a Cause and Effect (fishbone) diagram.